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And She Was

“The world was moving and she was right there with it (and she was).” -Talking Heads

Sir Conan used to tell me that it was impossible to regularly train Jiu-Jitsu and not improve, but considering how slowly I progressed in the beginning of my training, I thought I might be the exception that proved the rule. Even now, it’s still easy for me to believe that it takes me longer to learn things than the average student, but lately I’ve come to realize that may be how it was, but it isn’t the case anymore.

We stayed with the x guard theme in the advanced classes at Lincoln BJJ this week, but we progressed to a more complicated sweep, and on Monday, most of us were having difficulty with it. I was drilling in a group of three, and when Professor Greg came over to observe how we were doing, my partners went first, and when Greg said he wanted to see me demo it, I was nervous, so I got stuck halfway through, but then I successfully completed it, and I needlessly told The Professor “I got stuck!”, so he said “That’s because you didn’t turn your head on the roll, but you still did it better than either of those two”. It made me feel good when he said that, especially since neither of my partners were scrubs, they were both blue belts with skills! We continued practicing the same sweep last night, and at one point while I was drilling, I heard Conan say from across the room “That looked really good, Gina, it was smooth”, which was also nice to hear.

I don’t generally spend a lot of time in Jiu-Jitsu comparing myself to others (that’s a game I won’t usually win), but it is nice to realize that while I may not the best BJJ student, I’m not the worst, either (at least not anymore). Sometimes I think it’s difficult for me to see my own progress, but a little positive reinforcement can go a long way, and I appreciate that my instructors give it to me (when I deserve it ;).